The MOTU Electric Keys is a vintage keyboard instrument; it comes with organs, clavinets, and electric pianos. You can use it on multiple platforms and it is very light on your CPU. When I was first thinking of purchasing it, I looked at the price tag and said no! For 280 dollars and I was not getting any basses or pads? I was not happy with that, and then I got a chance to try out a demo of it and fell in love with the vintage sounds of it and bought it right away. All of the sounds in this keyboard are sample instruments from actual vintage boards. It even has B3 sounds, there are not a lot of them but the ones that it has are great! This is hands down one of the best vintage keyboard modules that has ever come out in the digital form.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Installing it was very easy and quick. It runs great and has never caused a problem. All of the samples are at 24-bit resolution which is a high quality for vintage sounding keys. You can use this as a plug-in or a stand alone. I have used it in Cubase, Reason, and FL Studio and it has worked great in all 3. I have been using it for about 3 months now. I use it almost every single day and it has never let me down. The interface is very easy to work with, and adding effects is just as easy because it allows you to open the FX rack with the click of a mouse. The FX rack seems like it is opening up a whole different VST window, but it will allow you to put some effects like chorus, phaser or delay right on that single vintage sound.

OVERALL OPINION

You will have all of the vintage instruments at your fingertips with MOTU Electric Keys, everything about this plug-in is great. I do not regret my decision at all and I will purchase the next version (upgrade) if they come out with one.

MOTU Electric Keys has been installed on my computer for a few years now, though I don’t use it much anymore. When I first purchased it I was really excited about it, then it kind of got put aside. It is a vintage keyboard VST that has some electric pianos, Clavinets and a few more instruments. The interface of this vintage VST is about as simple as it gets, it takes no effort at all to understand how to use it. There are around 50 different keyboards that make up this VST. The sound quality of all of the patches and instruments are really good, there is nothing to complain about when it comes to the quality.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

Installing it was very quick and easy. It is a very small VST that installs in no time at all. It runs at a high performance but still using only a little CPU. All of the main functions of this VST are easy to access and use. It does come with a manual, which is more of a quick start guide because there really isn’t too much to learn and understand.

OVERALL OPINION

My only issue with this VST is that it costs almost 300 dollars. I just don’t feel like it's worth that much. I would be happier if it was around the 150 mark then I would say it is respectable. Most of the keyboards sound really good, but some of them really are not useable for the style of music that I make. This has been installed on my computer since about 2009 and I think that I have used it less than 10 times in the last 3 years. If I could go back, I would not have bought this and spent my 300 dollars elsewhere. If you are into Vintage VST sounds and want a bunch of classic keyboards in your computer then you will love this. But it was a mistake for me to buy it.

The MOTU Electric Keys is a virtual instrument designed for use within MOTU Digital Performer, but can be used in other sequencers as well. This piece of software has always run smoothly for me and I haven't ever had any compatibility issues as I run it with Digital Performer which is made by the same company.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The interface of the software is pretty easy to follow as it has all of the effects and features you would expect from a good electric piano. In addition to having a ton of different presets, it has parameters for volume, tune, bass, middle, treble, and drive and then has a section for the tremolo effect which has parameters for depth and speed. The manual for the MOTU Electric Keys software is put together well and is a good thing to have if you are new to virtual instruments.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, the MOTU Electric Keys virtual instrument is a great sounding piece of gear. It does an awesome emulation of the electric piano and can get sounds similar to a Fender Rhodes or a Wurlizter Electric Piano, all in the convienience of a virtual instrument. Since I use this in Digital Performer, I find that it always runs very well without any issues, which adds to the overall ease of use of the software. The amount of different sounds possible with this software is pretty endless as there are not only a ton of great presets, but also a wide array of parameters to control your tone. The price of this software is about average and while it isn't a steal by any means, I do believe you are getting your moneys worth. If you are looking for a great emulator of an electric piano, MOTU Electric Keys is the way to go, especially if you are running MOTU Digital Performer.

I use for 1 month and the least we can say is that the tearing sounds!
The Rhodes are falling. The Wurlitzer is also very good (I have a soft spot for the W 270). The B3 are sumptuous and vivid (far from a B4 II, for example!).
The machines are strings, although rare on plugins, very useful here (phaser, flanger, ...). The Mellotron is also not bad at all.
I had a doubt on the rack effect at the beginning but with a little practice (because the settings are very sensitive, such as chorus) sounds very interesting.
A first choice to recommend warmly!
Sincerely,

The sound of the beast is bluffing! and rack effect absolutely terrible, it is imperative to have fun with and it was right away with a sound, a dozen well possibiltés dsitinctes!

there is no better on the market (NI electric piano and other), source of inspiration for me, a true museum to the other, to have in his arsenal and whatever the type of music (Hip hop electronica for me